


You Can't Bathe in Full Body Armor

by Miki_and_company



Series: Water, Salt, and the Time it Takes to Grow Up [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Consensual Underage Sex, First Time, Humanstuck, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Showers, actually more like feelings with porn, extra chapter from a long fic, handjobs, it's technically underage but like theyre 17 so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-24 20:53:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10749621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miki_and_company/pseuds/Miki_and_company
Summary: ( "Deleted" scene from "Let the Fuck Ups Be")Dave and Karkat are back from their tournament weekend, and after what seems like an eternity are finally just the two of them. Alone together, with their expectations, their doubts, their desires and everything else.So what now?





	You Can't Bathe in Full Body Armor

When Dave and Karkat finally cross the door threshold of Karkat’s house, they were tired.

Dave put down his bags in the entryway and sighed. The weekend had been one big rush of adrenaline, and though the fact that he was finally—after all this time—alone with Karkat didn’t change the fact that he needed a break of some sort. To lie on the floor and pretend he didn’t exist. To wrap in a blanket and make a cool kid burrito. To bury his face in his boyfriend’s neck or take a nap on his lap.

His battery was extremely low.

“Bro, my phone is almost dead,” Dave said.

“Uh? Oh, there is a charger on my nightstand in my room, you can go plug it there,” Karkat told him.

So, he did, and then he slouched his way to the living room to fall on the couch with a long whine.

“All right, so you’re just going to take a nap, good plan,” he heard Karkat say flatly, walking past him.

Then he heard the familiarly excessive noise of the coffee machine being turned on. It was four and a half in the afternoon, but in the grey quiet feel of the April day, and in the cold silent feel of a house that had not seen a human soul in three days, coffee seemed like a tremendous idea.

“Can I have one too?” he asked, tilting his head so his voice would carry across to the kitchen side of the open room.

“Come and get one yourself,” Karkat answered.

Dave let out a whine of protest. He didn’t move.

He was actually falling asleep when he got nudged in the shoulder three minutes later, Karkat holding out a cup of coffee for him.

After understanding the offer, he sat up, leaving a spot for Karkat, and took the mug.

“I fucking love you man,” he said, smiling.

“Don’t take it for granted,” Karkat answered softly, sitting down next to him.

They fell into a silence. Which for them was a wildly unusual feat. However, it was also an energizing silence. After seventy-two hours of non-stop studying and buzzing and stressing out, he could make a reel in his head of all the good or intense moments; of playing in the pool until his fingertips were like raisins, of looking at Karkat engage in passionate debates with Aradia at the dinner table, of falling asleep pressed cuddled against him.

 He remembered his sweaty palms when going against Saint-Joseph Catholic school, and his exploit on the last question of the last match. He remembered Karkat kissing him and how the faces he saw on this day would go down forever in the history of the dopest shit that ever happened to him.

He let his hand scour and his fingers intertwined with Karkat as he remembered once more how much he loved him.

And how Karkat loved him back.

And how they were alone together, and how it held this silent hope that they could finally just fucking get it on.

The thought gave Dave a little more energy. He finished quickly his cup of coffee and once it was empty of the low table of the living room, he rested his head on Karkat’s shoulder. He lifted their hands to give soft pecks to the back of Karkat’s, letting his lips linger at the feeling of the soft brown skin. He wasn’t hurried. He just liked feeling Karkat, he just liked having Karkat close to himself, he just liked the feelings.

He was nervous somewhere, but that just made him go slower. He was comfortable and trusting enough of Karkat to know that he could set the pace he wanted. Instead, he took the time to be vulnerable just a little. There was this odd, unfamiliar thrill to it. This highly forbidden thing, to be, for even just a minute, sincere and soft.

There was also an ache. He was afraid, and this simple gesture made him feel extremely close to just shutting off and pretending he didn’t care, even though he had had frickin steamy make out sessions before, with this same guy.

The downright love-struck eyes he met when he looked back at Karkat were nearly the end of him. His heart tightened in his chest, his soul sunk to hell and his mind just mashed a random assortment of commands in his brain. He retrieved his hand and crossed his arms on his chest, he sat upright and stopped looking at Karkat even a little. Afraid he might have overreacted, he laughed feebly,

“Gay,” he said.

He could just feel Karkat’s eyeroll without even looking. Followed by a bit lip. A battle of frustration, worry and affection being fought in Karkat’s mind.

“You egg,” the latter began, not knowing what tactic he was supposed to adopt. “You know, I’m not going to judge you because once in your fucking life you decide to not to the emotionless weirdo thing, right?”

“I know,” Dave said, trying not to sound distraught or ashamed.

“I know you know,” Karkat answered. “But I thought it would be relevant to remind you.”

He attempted to stroke Dave arm, anxious that the gesture of comfort could be rejected, and was reassured when it was not. This wasn’t a full-on strider breakdown, he understood, just the anticipation of one.

“We don’t have to do anything in a specific way,” Karkat said, deciding it was now or never for a good feeling jam. “In fact, we don’t have to do anything at all. I’m not—I’m not sticking with you because of that, or because I hope that you will sweep me off my feet like a motherfucking romcom prince, Dave. I know it’s though to be open with feelings, I happen to own a lot of these human diseases myself. Wouldn’t you know. Being in a relationship is though, I mean, it implies to be all sorts of vulnerable moments that are pretty tough to be in, but like, they’re also sort of necessary? I mean, we have relationships for a reason, no? I mean I guess some people are fine without them, but social interaction is like fucking personal hygiene, even if you build immunity without it, at some point you got to fucking have it. And sometimes, you just can’t bathe in a suit of armor.”

Karkat was fidgeting, looking at Dave’s thoughtful face, hoping he wasn’t fucking up too much. He thought that now would be a good time to shut up, but his mouth was running more on autopilot than anything at this point.

“Wait, what the fuck was even this metaphor. What was I talking about again? God, I’m spewing some philosophical bullshit about love again, aren’t I?” he added. “I’m sorry. I mean. I’m saying all this fucking stuff, but it’s not really helping because I don’t know what I’m doing either. Like, there is no way to control it. I want you to feel good, I want you to feel comfortable, to trust me, and I can’t do that for you. I can tell you what’s on my mind, I can try to be as fucking honest as I can, I can try to be kind, to do things that show I care about you, but I can’t make you feel the way I want you to, that’s just not gonna happen.”

Karkat sighed.

“And yet I care so ridiculously much about how you feel, it’s stupid.”

Dave was hugging Karkat. Tightly, unapologetically, suddenly. Karkat hugged back. Well, it seemed to be an improvement. Karkat let his fingers roam through Dave’s hair.

“I’m sorry,” the blond muttered.

“What the fuck are you sorry for, you fickle idiot? I’ll have you know all I’m feeling right now is glad that you aren’t too upset.”

They parted their hug.

Dave swallowed, and looked at Karkat.

“I just thought I’d be able to handle fucking hand holding, dude.”

“First of all, you weren’t just holding my hand, you were kissing it, which is substantially more romantically cheesy than holding it. Second of all, I think you are more worried about spending the night with me than you are about the actual gesture in itself.”

“…that’s fair.”

“But like I said, we don’t have to do anything specific, or even anything at all. You can just tell me to stop whenever, I’m not some sort of asswipe who wants this to be a bad experience for you.”

“Okay,” Dave said.

Then he leaned to kiss Karkat. Karkat responded enthusiastically. This was good, this was nice, this was familiar territory, and yet, Dave still felt the butterflies in his stomach like it was their first. Their breaths tasted of coffee and exhaustion, which admittedly wasn’t the best of tastes.

“So, we’re doing this?” Karkat asked.

“We’re making this happen,” Dave confirmed.

“All right then,” Karkat said, “But can we get a shower first? Honestly, sleeping in hotels always makes me feel all sorts of disgusting, my clothes are sweaty and both of our breaths smell like hot shit.”

He was already up and walking towards the bathroom.

“Together?” Dave asked.

He wasn’t even expectant; he was just sort of genuinely wondering if it had been some sort of propositioning.

Karkat shrugged.

“If you want to, I guess.”

That wasn’t an answer, Dave didn’t know what to make of it. So, he got up and casually followed Karkat into the bathroom, mostly because he just didn’t want to be left alone. Instead of undressing or anything though, he just sat on the closed-lid toilet.

Karkat brushed his teeth. When he was done, he looked at Dave, who didn’t seem like he wanted to move, and just removed his shirt.

He did it like he would have done it by himself, only throwing a short glare at Dave to see if it was okay. The latter didn’t seem to weirded out. In fact, he was rather enjoying the sight.

Karkat didn’t have a six pack by any means: he had the body of a late teenager, not excessively floppy nor excessively thin, though certainly bearing more flesh than Dave (a walking skeleton) did. Hair traced the way from his navel to inside his pants, he had nothing to be ashamed about. Not that Dave would have cared much if he was covered with back acne or anything else: he felt too strongly for Karkat to see his flaws.

Karkat turned on the water, to give it some time to warm up as well as to give himself some delay before he could strip all the way, then removed his socks.

“Are you going to go in with me, or are you just going to sit there?”

“Uh,” Dave answered. “Yeah.”

Karkat would have asked “’yeah’ what?” if Dave hadn’t gotten up at that moment to go out of the bathroom. He came back thirty seconds later with his toothbrush. As he began to brush his teeth, Karkat finally dropped his pants and boxers, making him fully naked in the same room as Dave. Who, a bit of toothpaste foam on the corner of his mouth, tried to stare. Before he had time to do so, Karkat rushed behind the shower curtain, hiding himself—at least temporarily—from body scrutiny.

 Not bathing in full body armor wasn’t necessarily an instinctive thing.

Eventually, Dave shed his clothes and his shades as well. He hesitated before walking in, though. This was a bit awkward and not exactly this sort of romantic epic he had first set it to be. He remembered that Karkat had warned him about this very thing just a day earlier. Turns out it wasn’t as much uncontrollable hormones that made this awkward, as just this inevitable, anxiety-giving nakedness. He knew, however, that if he could get through it, he’s probably finally get this coveted prize, this thing his body and mind had told him to go after for what felt like so long, this sex thing, whatever it was.

He walked in.

Karkat and Dave looked at each other awkwardly, each, arms crossed over their chest. Karkat smiled. Well, they were both as naked as could be, that’s for sure. Also, Karkat definitely didn’t leave any of the water for Dave.

So, that was it? It wasn’t that bad. Dave did not feel as much like dying as he expected to while being naked in front of another human being. In fact, he was more focused on appreciating Karkat than on worrying about himself. He couldn’t help but stare a bit. The water was dripping down his body, his hair parting in wet strands that were just really cute and sort of hot.

“Nice,” Dave commented out loud.

Karkat blushed.

“We’re not having sex in the shower, by the way,” Karkat clarified. “Doing this together is one thing, but honestly I’d rather not get freaky and slip and break something.”

“All right,” said Dave, who was actually quite reassured. He too, preferred exploring new grounds in places that weren’t too slippery.

That said, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t kiss. So, Dave kissed Karkat’s cheek. Then Karkat’s forehead. Then his other cheek. His nose. When Karkat giggled, Dave kissed him on the mouth.

Karkat grabbed Dave’s nape as they kissed. This one wasn’t just a peck, it was lips, tongues, and weird make out noises and everything. Dave was close to having to fight a hard on when Karkat pulled away.

“We should probably get cleaned fast,” he said with a grin.

“Uh, sure,” Dave said, slightly dazed.

Karkat handed him the shampoo, after having poured some in his own hands. He walked a bit away from the water stream to lathe, in the same movement almost bumping into Dave. Well, it wasn’t a very big space to share, was it?

Of course, halfway through shampooing his own hair, Dave just decided to mess with Karkat, putting his hair in foamy spikes. His boyfriend looked back at him at once exasperated and amused, then reciprocated. Except that Dave realized at this moment that having fingers massage his scalp was indeed very pleasant, and let out a loud moan.

“Dude, keep those for when we’re doing dirty stuff, will you?”

“Oh, yeah, get me squeaky clean, daddy, um, yeah,” Dave joked.

His hardiness got him to get his hair pulled.

“Ow!”

“You deserved it,” Karkat said.

Dave pouted.

They rinsed off. Didn’t goof off too much with the conditioner. They planned on doing the same with the body wash, but as it turned out, they weren’t very good at keeping their hands to themselves. There were some shitty attempts at shoulder massage, some vaguely reckless tickling, and a decision that they were, indeed, clean enough.

As they towelled off, the pit in Dave’s stomach came back once again. The excitement and the anxiety he was feeling did not seem fully separable from one another. He felt stupid for it, but heck. He wanted it. He had wanted it for a while, now.

Karkat kissed him up the bathroom wall, and this time, Dave did not hold back the heat from spreading from his chest to his groin, from his core to his entire body. Damn. Well, there was no doubt that Karkat could feel his arousal from under his towel now. He wondered briefly if it was too late to back away, before realizing that, either way, he didn’t want to. It was reassuring to know he could, but right now, the part of his brain in his dick was really giving him the courage he needed.

He got dizzy, drunk, on every touch he received. It was like downing a bottle of pure dopamine, with each gulp asking for more. Hands on his sides, mouth at his neck, arms over his shoulders, a lower back under his palms; they were all genius ideas, executed magnificently. He realized, not sure when, that Karkat was as hard as he was, and that their towels as well as their upright position were quite bothersome things.

Karkat pulled away a little.

“Maybe we should go…”

“Yeah,” Dave nodded.

And so, they trotted out, Karkat pulling Dave by the forearm. They had no intent on lingering in the hallway at all. Dave toppled Karkat on the comforter of his bed. Now this was better (even if they’re feet were still hanging out).

He would have said so, if his mouth wasn’t excessively busy at that moment.

These were some damn fine sounds that came out of his boyfriend’s talk hole, and the way his fingers grasped at Dave’s shoulders had urgency.

Without warning, Karkat flipped them over on the bed. He sat up on Dave’s lap, a bit out of breath, and Dave had a “fuck, he’s hot” moment, in reaction to the sight.

“Fuck me,” he said instead.

“That’s the plan,” Karkat smirked.

He ghosted his palm over Dave’s crotch, his modesty covered by the towel in principle only. Dave let out a needy nose whine.

“Okay?” Karkat asked.

“Fuck yes. Please. Yes. Now.”

“Maybe you should just move upwards a little bit…”

It’s true that their position on the bed was sketchy as best. Dave protested, but complied. He moved back all the way against the wall, where he leaned, and where Karkat could sit comfortably right over him. Karkat pressed his forehead against Dave’s. He touched the edge of the towel and asked once again,

“Okay?”

Dave simply nodded, eyes closed. Karkat undid the towel, and buried his face in Dave’s neck, his warm breath uneven. Carefully, but firmly, he wrapped his hand around Dave’s dick.

Dave gasped. Karkat moved his hand and Dave bit his lip. The pressure was a bit too light, but the rhythm was steady.

“Harder,” Dave begged under his breath.

But Karkat heard it, held tighter and pumped faster, making Dave’s toes curl and his fingers pull on Karkat’s hair. As he pumped, the latter started rutting against Dave’s legs, seeking some satisfaction of his own.

Dave was babbling, muttering into Karkat’s hair an unintelligible stream of sounds and half-words. His muscles were tense, and his senses overwhelmed, as if his brain was trying to stock in them every drop of pleasure that came his way. Karkat was moving back and forth on his lap. He unburied his face from the crook of Dave’s neck, their glazed eyes met for a moment, then he gave into a sloppy kiss, rushed and needy. It was then that Dave knew he was really close. He tried to issue a warning, but before he could, he was already hit with his orgasm.

It was like pulling at a thousand tiny knots at each of his nerve’s endings, giving them tension until they relaxed completely, undone. A few waves went through him, he felt the warm sticky feeling of his come on his stomach, and then he did not care for anything else. He almost collapsed despite being sat against a wall. All that tiredness from before, it caught up to him, there was nothing he could do, his limbs might have as well be lead.

Karkat made a displeased grunt, and Dave wasn’t sure whether it was because he was still trying to finish against a completely unresponsive partner, or whether because he had gotten come all over his hand and body.

He wiped unceremoniously his palm on Dave’s chest, then, with a semblance of dignity, jacked himself off. As he finished, he threw his head back and let his arms fall on his side. He held himself upright a bit better than his partner, but the up and down of his chest betrayed his exhaustion.

“Uh,” Dave said, not exactly sure what to do now. Not exactly sure he wanted to do anything now.

Karkat slumped himself all the way to the Kleenex box on his nightstand, grabbed a handful of them, and tossed some more to Dave. With a sigh, most of the mess was cleaned up, and the paper tissues ended their journey in the conveniently located trash can right beside the nightstand. Then they just laid there. They barely gathered enough energy to crawl under the sheets, completely forgetting it was hardly even dinnertime yet.  

They cuddled, as it was the only thing they had energy left to do. Dave laughed feebly.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Thank you?” Karkat answered, aggrieved. “Really? _Thank you?_ Dave, I love you, but we have really got to work on your pillow talk.”

“m’sorry. m’tired.”

“All right, I forgive you,” Karkat muttered. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Dave answered seconds before passing out.

**Author's Note:**

> I have this thing with smut that I love to start writing it but then get bored when I get to the actual sex part? Anyway, I'm not usually a smut writer, but I wrote this at the expense of my reputation, with the hope that the catharsis it could bring you shall compensate. 
> 
> I hope my innate alienation with all matters of lust did not impair the feelings conveyed in this fic. Tell me what you think?


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